I trust them... except for the hotmomma sounding ones. With my day job, I am involved with many entrepreneurs and business owners who use them as well. I agree with Lee and her opening of the mail policy. If there are things to download, and it looks weary, don't download it. Also some people use them because the server there other email is on may have a size limit which can be too small.

I am the secretary of two network meetings which means that I have everyones email addresses. Quite a few of them have these types of accounts. Especially the ones that do not have a website yet or that do not plan to have one but they need to have an email address.

My recommendation is to Google the email address if you are questioning the address. I google almost every address first to make sure that they are not scams. If Google does not come up with anything then I usually respond.

I have been receiving emails from "Managers" of UPS telling me that my package was not delivered because of my address and to download the attached invoice and bring it to UPS (the email address was ...@UPS.com). I went on to UPS' site and tracked the package number and it did not exist, then I called UPS and they said that they have been getting a lot of these calls and gave me an email address to forward the messages to.

It is actually easy to create an email account that uses a business name that does not exist.

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Erika Glem
www.advadminsol.com Let my administrative solutions be to your advantage.